Elvis on Monday night stage with Steelers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - When last seen on Monday night football, Elvis Grbac was holding his shoulder at a cockeyed angle and grimacing.

A savage double-hit by Pittsburgh's Nolan Harrison and Jason Gildon broke the Kansas City quarterback's collarbone and shelved him for six weeks.

Now, almost a year later, those same Steelers are back in the same stadium tonight.

"I'm not going to think about it. I'm just going to go out there and play the best I can and get out of here with a win," Grbac said.

Actually, he's thought about it a lot.

"They came with a blitz and I didn't check the blitz first. I was trying to make the big play," he said. "As a quarterback, you've got to be patient a little bit. I should have dumped it off, and I could have been playing for the rest of the year."

Truth be told, it's been almost 12 months since Grbac started and finished a game that Kansas City won.

In the opener against Oakland, he separated his shoulder and was out four games until the Chiefs' last outing, a 40-10 loss to New England.

That was on Oct. 11. Since then, the Chiefs have had a chance to rest their bodies and psyches with a bye week.

"It was a good time for us to take a break. Guys were injured. Now they're back," Grbac said. "Everybody is excited about the second half of the year."

The Steelers and Chiefs, meeting in Arrowhead Stadium on Monday night for the third straight year, are both 4-2.

"It is a big game," said Grbac. "There are a lot of teams right in the thick of things."

While Grbac's been on the mend, Pittsburgh quarterback Kordell Stewart's been on the run. Adjusting to a new offensive coordinator and working behind a patched-up offensive line, Stewart has even been booed in Three Rivers Stadium.

"I can't say one Steelers fan when they booed last weekend was saying, `Well, we want him to lose,"' Stewart said. "Things weren't going well and they wanted to see some excitement. You can't blame them. You wish they wouldn't do it. True Steelers fans will be there regardless. When we win they'll be there. When we lose they'll be there. I'm still going to be out there playing my butt off."

The Steelers rank 30th with fewer than 192 passing yards per game and Stewart has been sacked 16 times. He was sacked just 20 times all last year.

The Chiefs are first in pass defense with an average yield of 146.7.

"It's going to be a test for our offense," Stewart said. "I just need to be focused and understand what I need to do."

The Chiefs' Chester McGlockton, a 320-pound defensive end signed off the Oakland roster last spring, makes his debut. The four-time Pro Bowl lineman played in only the first exhibition game in Japan before developing a back problem that led to surgery in September.

"If he gets 10 or 12 plays a game the first two games or so, that will be OK," defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham said.

McGlockton could help shore up a run defense giving up almost 127 yards a game.

"I told the team, don't let No. 75 (McGlockton) be the answer to all the problems we've had," Cunningham said. "We want to make sure we play our game and let him play his way into condition."